Stagecoach service changes (Tameside and Glossop), 26/10/2008

• Off-peak evening services on 236/237 to run between Ashton - Glossop;
• 4 hour gap between direct Manchester services in Dukinfield cut to 1 hour 45 minutes;
• 220 Sunday service replaced by 217/218;
• New direct link with Carrbrook and Mossley on Monday - Saturday for Dukinfield (King Street and Boyd’s Walk) residents.

Most often than not, the very two words ’service changes’ fill me with dread. Thankfully not this time.

With the summer season ending in the Peak District, the Tameside area often gets four sets of service changes from Stagecoach alone. In addition to those affecting Manchester routes, Tameside’s are also affected by revisions affecting Glossop and Peak District routes at the beginning of and at the end of the summer season.

For probably the first time ever, the King Street and Boyd’s Walk area of Dukinfield will have a direct link with Mossley on Monday - Saturdays. Between the Albion Hotel and Mossley (Brookbottom), this will augment Speedwell’s 343 service. This is the knock on effect caused by the withdrawal of Mayne’s routes 232 - 235. Mossley passengers travelling into to Manchester by bus will take the 217 in a clockwise direction, with the 218 moving anti-clockwise.

Sunday services on the 220 will be renumbered 217 on journeys to Manchester from Stalybridge and 218 on journeys out of Manchester into Stalybridge and follow the route of the present 218 service.  The present 217 Sunday service to Tameside Hospital will see westbound journeys renumbered as the 218.

The Littlemoss and Smallshaw sections of the 232 - 235 routes will be served by an upgraded 231, with a 15 minute daytime frequency between Ashton - Manchester - and buses running every 7/8 minutes in the weekday peaks.  This will also replace the whole 230 route operated by Stagecoach.

The revisions also end an embarrassing gap in service provision in Dukinfield where there is at present a 4 hour gap between direct Manchester buses (1515 - 1915 from the Albion Hotel).  However, there are some gripes with the changes, in that a more direct link with Tameside Hospital has been severed, and that there is no longer a journey between 0830 and 1012 to Stalybridge from Dukinfield (Albion Hotel).

Though less of a gripe (and of surprise) evening services on the 236/237 will terminate at Ashton, with extra journeys on the 216 taking over.  I was also relieved to find that the 236/237 will still run to and from Manchester in the peak hours.

All other services are unaffected, thus meaning the evening 217 (Speedwell), evening 220 and 230 journeys (both First Manchester) will run as normal.  The new 217/218 will also augment the extra peak hour journeys on the 220 and 221, also operated by Stagecoach Manchester.

S.V., 03 October 2008.

Three Sparky Individuals, Two Lectures, One Amazing Day

Out on the road with Donna Williams in Burnley and Aintree.

Friday 19th September 2008 will go down as one of my greatest days in the near three decades of my existence on this planet of ours.

The Not So Perfect 10: Bus Boarding Peeves

Having focused on the things I have most missed about buses in the Greater Manchester area, this topic focuses on the things which nark me off the most.

Could Cross-City Bus Services Return to Manchester?

Plans for new cross-city bus network proposed under Transport Innovation Fund

Unless you have had your head buried in the sand, Manchester was the successful bidder for the Government’s Transport Innovation Fund. This would

Dukinfield Bank Holiday bus services

346 to gain Bank Holiday service for the first time since 2000!

For the first time since GM Buses was split into three (the third being Charterplan, moving to East Yorkshire Motor Services), Dukinfield now has some semblance of a decent bus network over the Bank Holiday period.

In line with First, Arriva and some independent companies, Stagecoach Manchester will operate a full Sunday service on Bank Holidays starting from Good Friday (21 March 2008). This is in line with the Mayne of Manchester services acquired by Stagecoach on the 22 January this year.

This good news for Dukinfield passengers who have recently been at the sharp end of this year’s service revisions alone - as well as insufficient Bank Holiday services. The knock on effect sees the 346 operating a Bank Holiday service for the first time since 2000!

The last company to do so was First Pennine (then owned by First PMT who are now First North Staffordshire), whom in 1999 operated a normal weekday service on their 346 route.  From 2003, the only Bank Holiday 346 journey was the 0830 from Ashton - Hyde, operated by First Manchester.

Running order:

• 0845 - 1955: 220 Manchester - Tameside Hospital;
• 0910 - 1850: 346 Hyde - Ashton (via Newton);
• 0830 - 2340: 330 Ashton - Stockport;
• 1130 - 2255: 41 Ashton - Dukinfield (Yew Tree);
• 0900 - 1900: 388 Ashton - Hyde - Marple (via Yew Tree);
• 1900 - 2330: 389 Ashton - Hyde - Gee Cross;
• 0910 - 2330: 343 Hyde - Mossley - Oldham;
• 0900 - 2158: 345 Ashton - Denton (Pendle Road).

East of the M60 wishes its readers a Happy Easter.

S.V., 12 March 2008

Doctor Strangeroute (or how I learned to stop worrying and love the bus)

How the local bus (almost) saved me from commuting worries

In the last two weeks, most of us UK residents will have known about the flood affecting the North West and Yorkshire areas. This has obviously had a profound effect on the railways within Lancashire and Yorkshire

Dukinfield bus service changes: double whammy hits Albion Hotel area

The good, the downright obvious and the ugly

• 343 service retained and rerouted;
• Sunday evening 220 withdrawn;
• Monday - Saturday 419 (Stalybridge - Dukinfield - Ashton) withdrawn;
• Minor changes on Monday - Saturday 220 and 221 route.

New Year, New Increases, Old Grumblers

Bus and rail fare squabblefest

Can’t you tell that the New Year has started already? Two days into the year, our blessed transport companies let New Year in by issuing a 5 - 15% fares increase on its passengers.

The Alternative Christmas Reading List

Christmas is coming, repeats are fast looming, as people in Argos are still queueing and awaiting their number - some twenty minutes later…

As eventual as death and taxation, the terrestrial television will face another repetition of Bonds from Moore to Dalton, and furniture adverts.

Stagecoach Manchester strike update

As stated on the Stagecoach Manchester website and in today’s Manchester Evening News, the proposed stoppages on the 27th and the 29th November have been postponed.  Instead, there will be a second ballot on Tuesday 27th November over a revised pay deal.

Should drivers agree to the revised offer, then the strikes on the 29th November, and the four days in December will be called off.